Bryan Scott Williams, 47, 224 Neal Shoals Road, pleaded guilty to neglect of a vulnerable adult in General Sessions Court on Wednesday afternoon. Williams, who has been held in the Union County Detention Center since he was arrested Oct. 13, 2009, was sentenced by Judge Alexander S. Macaulay of the 10th Judicial Circuit Court to five years in prison suspended upon three years probation with credit for 240 days already served. Macaulay also ordered Williams to undergo drug and alcohol treatment and to serve six months house detention at his father’s home.
At the time of his arrest in October, Williams was charged with neglect of a vulnerable adult. The charge was upgraded to homicide by neglect following the Nov. 4, 2009, death of his mother, Carol Ruth Willliams.
Sixteenth Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett said he agreed to drop the homicide by neglect charge and allow Williams to plead guilty to the lesser charge because it could not be shown the neglect caused Mrs. Williams’ death. Brackett said that in the course of the investigation it was determined Mrs. Williams had been mentally competent up until she lost consciousness sometime before her son and another relative took her to the hospital on Oct. 11. He said being mentally competent she could have told her son any time prior to losing conciousness to get help. As for why she didn’t, Brackett said that will never be known.
Another reason for dropping the more serious charge was questions about Williams’ mental competency. Brackett said his investigation had determined Williams has a child-like mentality. He said Williams himself could be considered a vulnerable adult who was totally dependent on his mother when it came to decision-making.
Williams’ attorney, Misti Shelton of the Public Defenders Office, pointed out Williams does not function on the level of someone his age. Shelton said he didn’t do anything but what his mother told him to. She said he didn’t understand the situation they were in and became overwhelmed.
Supporting Shelton’s case for leniency were Williams’ friends Gene Sprouse and Barry Canupp, his uncle John Williams and pastor, the Rev. Michael Truitt. All four addressed the court about Williams’ character with his uncle saying he loved his mother and would never have intentionally harmed anyone, especially a member of his family. Truitt spoke of how Williams had told him that he loved God, adding that a man who loves God has to also love his mother. He said he believed Williams would never do anything to intentionally harm anyone.
During questioning by Macaulay about the final month of his mother’s life, Williams fought back tears, telling how she’d come to live with him in 2008 but soon had trouble taking care of her because of financial difficulties. Shortly before sentencing, Williams said he was sorry for everything that had happened. He said he would never have done anything to hurt his mother and thanked those who’d spoke on his behalf.
Mrs. Williams, 67, spent nearly a month in Spartanburg Regional Medical Center after being brought to the emergency room at Wallace Thomson Hospital by her son and another family member on Oct. 11. According to the initial incident report, deputies were dispatched to the hospital to investigate a report of a bruised and unresponsive elderly woman later identified as Mrs. Williams. A worker from DSS was also dispatched.
The deputies observed and photographed redness, swelling, bruising (bed sores) and open wounds to Mrs. Williams’ lower right leg; redness on her inner thighs, stomach, chest and arms; and open wounds on her buttocks and back. The deputies, DSS worker and nursing staff observed maggots in and around the open wounds on Mrs. Williams’ buttocks and back and a foul odor was coming from her.
When questioned by deputies, Williams said he lived with his mother at the Neals Shoals residence and said she’d been alert the night before. Williams said that since there was only one air conditioner in the mobile home, she slept on the living room sofa and he slept on a mattress on the floor next to her. He said when he woke up around seven that morning, she was unresponsive.
He then drove to a relative’s home, advised her of the situation and they went back, placed Mrs. Williams on a sheet and carrier her out to the car and took her to the hospital. Williams said he didn’t notice any injuries on his mother until he and the relative were cleaning her up to take her to the hospital.
The relative said she’d visited Mrs. Williams a week earlier and spoke with her and didn’t notice any injuries. She said Mrs. Williams appeared normal and did not complain of any visible injuries.
Williams said for the previous month his mother was physically unable to get off the sofa. He had been buying adult diapers for her but she was cleaning herself.
Those diapers were what a deputy and a DSS worker found when they went to Williams’ house. They found a huge pile of trash in the living room between the sofa and the mattress including a large number of adult diapers containing feces. They also found trash piled on the kitchen floor and in the sink and cabinets. They found dog feces throughout the house with one bedroom where the animal had been kept almost completely covered in its waste.
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